Hooper report: Industry should lead on new 'copyright hub'

“If the UK is to maintain and improve its position as world leader in the creative industries then it needs an efficient and responsive system to manage the use of creative rights”

The creative industries need to play a key role in leading and funding the Copyright Hub, a marketplace for rights to streamline copyright licensing and make transactions easier for creators, rights holders and users, according to an independent report published today by Richard Hooper.

The report, ‘Copyright works (4.31Mb)‘, was Richard Hooper’s final report on the feasibility of developing a Digital Copyright Exchange. The report’s two key recommendations are for the creation of a not-for-profit industry-led, industry-funded Copyright Hub, and the establishment of a steering group to drive forward and oversee the design and implementation of the Hub.

The Copyright Hub will have five main purposes, to:

act as a signpost and be a navigation mechanism to the complex world of copyright

be the place to go for copyright education

be the place where any copyright owner can choose to register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted

be the place for potential licensees to go for easy to use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing

be one of the authoritative places where prospective users of orphan works can go to demonstrate they have done proper, reasonable and due diligence searches for the owners of those works before they digitise them.

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